the blog of hasbean coffee

Day two and it all begins real coffees to cup in a real situation and it cant come soon enough. Working our way through the first three tables of Bolivia’s finest, the tables are amazing, truly very special. The first two are WOW the third on its own would have been great, but was shadowed by the quality of the first two.

It also reminds me what I love about the typical profile of sweetness syrupy mouthfeel rich and just perfect espresso. We have ot get something sorted in this country if not with cup of excellence (which would be nice), but something more long term and relationship based.

I wanted to cup more but the tables ended at 25 cups (a 9 an 9 and a 7), the same tomorrow. Once we had finished there was a trip to what they call the Death road. Its merited with having mroe deaths on it when it was open than any other road and was classified as the most dangerous road in the world. Luckily last December the new road opened (which doesn’t look that safe to me but if much better than the old one). I couldn’t entertain the thought of sitting in the back fo a bus for all that time just to come down in a bus. So me and Jose from Mercanta (who is a Spanish speaker which helps) organized a trip down it for the two of us on mountain bikes. We have some fantastic pictures but all on Jose’s camera, but once I return I’ll get them off and show them to you all. It starts at the summit which is 4600 meters (15000 ft) above sea level. and ends up way down at around 2400 meters or something like that (the last figure he told me but my Spanish wasn’t so good after careering down a mountain for over two hours on the worlds most dangerous road.

But great fun and a great release from the stresses of the journey and the cupping room. But I’ll be glad to be back in the cupping room with both legs in tact today.

4 Comments

[…] James Edward Maule wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWe have ot get something sorted in this country if not with cup of excellence (which would be nice), but something more long term and relationship based. I wanted to cup more but the tables ended at 25 cups (a 9 an 9 and a 7), … […]

I am really looking forward to the results of this competition. The 2005 winner, Calama Marka, was one of the best I’ve ever had. I know the farmer was killed in an auto accident shortly after that competition (on ‘death road’?). I hope his family was able to carry on and enter again.